In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.

But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA

was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.

Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family?

When lies are still being told to this day, who do you believe?

I wouldn't even know where to start.

And I'm with the IRA.

Steakknife.

Listen first on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

Hello, this week we're putting on the sunblock, packing our cagulls, and most important

of all, deciding if we can fit one more book in our suitcase. So if you're starting to think

about your holiday reading, you're in the right place. Writer Sarah Collins and critic Leo

Robson joined me shortly to discuss their recommendations for books to read wherever you might be headed,

and thriller writer Claire McIntosh picks out a summary childhood favourite as the books she'd never lend.

But we start with Miranda Cowley Heller, a former HBO executive turned novelist for whom writing is something like an inheritance.

Her grandfather, Malcolm Cowley, was a legendary man of letters,

responsible for resurrecting William Faulkner's reputation when he was on the verge of being forgotten.

Miranda's novel, The Paper Palace, has another kind of inheritance at its heart.

The Palace of the title is a New England

property that has been the summer retreat of a dysfunctional bohemian family for generations.

When I spoke to Miranda Cowley, Heller, she began by reading a passage that takes us into the

...